Tag Archives: National Marine Fisheries Service

Take Action We just won another huge victory for whales and other marine mammals and we wanted to share in case you missed the news!

In response to an Earthjustice lawsuit, a federal court just ruled that the government must better protect endangered whales and other marine mammals from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington by employing the best available science.

The sound level that whales and other marine mammals experience during the Navy’s mid-frequency sonar training can disrupt migration, breeding, nursing, breathing, and feeding, and in some cases, cause internal hemorrhaging and ruptured eardrums.

Earthjustice sued in court to protect whales and other marine mammals from these dangerous training exercises–andwe won!

According to Earthjustice attorney Steve Mashuda, who led the effort:

“This is a victory for dozens of protected species of marine mammals, including critically endangered southern resident orcas, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and porpoises.The National Marine Fisheries Service must now employ the best science and require the Navy to take reasonable and effective actions to avoid and minimize harm from its training activities.”

Earthjustice has been fighting for the protection of marine wildlife for years, butour work to safeguard our ocean ecosystems and the species that depend on them is far from over.
because helped us win a victory to protect northwest orcas earlier this year, I also wanted to encourage you to take action to protect other imperiled marine species–including Atlantic bluefin tuna, sharks, and sea turtles–from being unnecessarily slaughtered by longline fishing.
We couldn’t do our work, and win, without you!

Sincerely,

Steve Mashuda
Attorney, Earthjustice
P.S. Earthjustice has been working tirelessly to protect our oceans, but we need your help. Tell the National Marine Fisheries Service to improve its management plan for fisheries that unnecessarily harm bluefin tuna and other imperiled species.

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#TalkPoverty a repost from 5/14

07/18/2015 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

Real People. Real Stories. Real Solutions For Poverty.

In America, too many of us fall into the trap of thinking: “Poverty is terrible but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Today, the Half in Ten Education Fund — dedicated to cutting poverty in half in 10 years — introduced a new project called talkpoverty.org dedicated to demonstrating that exactly the opposite is true: we know how to dramatically reduce poverty. The website is a hub where people can learn about poverty in America and what we can do to reduce it.

It also serves to unite and strengthen the antipoverty community, bridging the gap between local and national voices, between grassroots activism and policy work, and between those who are struggling and those who are more economically secure. At the site, you can find basic data and interactive maps about poverty in America; hear from people living in poverty and people dedicated to the fight against poverty; and get involved with local, state and national organizations to take action.

Celebrity chef, food activist, and head judge on Bravo’s Top Chef Tom Colicchio helps kick off the site with one of it’s first posts: “It’s time to #VOTEFOOD.” He traces his history as a chef: from not thinking about hunger and poverty, to attempting to offer food “at a more democratic price point” than his fancy restaurants, to raising money for organizations combating hunger, to finally starting the activist network Food Policy Action. He writes:

As soon as one legislator loses their job over the way they vote on food issues, it will send a clear message to Congress: We’re organized. We’re strong. Yes, we have a food movement, and it’s coming for you.

Former governor Ted Strickland (D-OH), the President of CAP Action, recalls his own personal story of growing up in poverty and always remembering those less fortunate than himself. “It’s un-American, frankly, that you can work and work and work and not get out of poverty,” he concludes.

National figures aren’t the only voices, however. Another featured post is by Sherita Mouzon, a member of Witnesses to Hunger and a Peer Mentor for the Salvation Army in Philadelphia. She writes:

My scars run long and deep—they will always be there. The long lasting effects of trauma stick with you. But I refuse to let my past dictate my future. My memories keep me humble. I’m shaped not by the commonly accepted “fact” that since I grew up in poverty I have to live in poverty now. Instead, I’m shaped by the idea that while you can’t change the past, you can change the future.

Talkpoverty.org melds these activists’ voices with an extensive data set of poverty indicators and demographic data, as well as interactive maps like the one below:

talkpov

CREDIT: Talkpoverty.org

In addition to blog content and data, the website will include:

Updates on local, state, and national anti-poverty campaigns and how to get involved
Features on anti-poverty victories and lessons learned
Alerts for anti-poverty actions and events
Synopses and links to the latest research, articles, videos, television programs, and
other media

Head over and check it out now!

BOTTOM LINE: 46 million Americans live in poverty, including more than one in five children. We need to have an informed conversation about how to dramatically reduce poverty in this country, and low-income people themselves should play a leading role. By listening to those who are living in poverty and those who are fighting poverty every day, we can grow the movement we truly need to ensure that all Americans have a fair shot at economic prosperity.

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Not Lovin’It

05/20/2014 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

Scenes From Yesterday’s Worldwide Fast Food Strikes

Yesterday we wrote about how fast food workers united to participate in the most widespread strike in the history of the fast food industry. Employees of fast food restaurants across the United States and around the world took the risk of walking off the job to demand higher pay, better treatment at work, and the opportunity for those who work hard to get ahead. All told, there were strikes in 230 cities, in 33 countries, on 6 continents around the world — including 150 cities in the United States.

Take a look at some of pictures from this worldwide event, and find more by following the twitter hashtag #FastFoodGlobal.

New York, NY:

CREDIT: @occupywallst

Tokyo, Japan:

CREDIT: @akaill

Aukland, New Zealand:

CREDIT: @LowPayIsNotOK

Chicago, IL:

CREDIT: @seiulocal1

Golas, Brazil:

CREDIT: @LowPayIsNotOK

London, England:

CREDIT: @NSSN_AntiCuts

Oakland, CA:

CREDIT: @juliacarriew

Bangkok, Thailand:

CREDIT: @nickrudikoff

Seoul, South Korea:

CREDIT: fastfoodglobal.org

CREDIT: #FastFoodGlobal

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TAKE ACTION: Protect Arctic Marine Mammals From Oil Exploration

06/17/2013 Nativegrl77

We’ve almost reached our goal of 50,000 public comments but we need your help to get there before the June 27 deadline!

After taking action, please share this with your friends:

Thank you again for taking action to protect northwest orcas from being delisted from the Endangered Species Act. The National Marine Fisheries Service is still reviewing public comments, including yours. We promise to keep you updated on the fate of southern resident orcas, but in the meantime, we wanted to let you know about an action that you can take to protect Arctic marine mammals, including beluga and bowhead whales, from oil exploration:
The Arctic’s marine mammals use sound for survival, but planned oil exploration activities could strip them of that ability.
Take action: Tell the National Marine Fisheries Service to say no to Arctic oil exploration that would harm marine wildlife!
Marine mammals—such as bearded and ringed seals, beluga whales, and the endangered bowhead whale—depend on sound to communicate, find food, and avoid prey. Oil exploration activities fill the ocean with loud noise that can interfere with these basic functions. Seismic surveying, for example, uses air-guns to detect oil beneath the sea-floor. The blasts—loud enough to cause deafness—occur day and night for months, and cover vast areas of the ocean.
The federal government is proposing moving forward with loud and risky oil exploration methods even though it has not completed an assessment of the cumulative impacts on Arctic marine mammals. Tell your government to take responsibility for protecting the marine mammals of the Arctic.
The remote Arctic Ocean and its wildlife are already under great stress from climate change. Why add the stress of oil exploration?
Tell the government not to permit any Arctic Ocean oil exploration until it completes a full analysis of the effects and understands how to mitigate the damage to marine mammals.
Sincerely,

Erik Grafe Staff Attorney, Alaska Office Earthjustice
P.S. We’ve almost reached our goal of 50,000 public comments but we need your help to get there before the June 27 deadline! After taking action, please share this with your friends:

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John Hocevar, Greenpeace

03/14/2013 Nativegrl77

The National Marine Fisheries Service wants to allow fishing nets known as “walls of death” in crucial leatherback turtle habitat.

Take Action
Act now to tell them to protect this endangered species.

Endangered leatherback turtles migrate 6,000 miles across the Pacific each year, and at the end of their journey looms a deadly threat.

Drift gillnets, known as “walls of death,” float just off the California coast. While their purpose is to catch swordfish, these nets ensnare and drown more than a hundred marine mammals a year. Rare sharks and endangered sea turtles are also among the casualties.

Leatherback turtles can currently take refuge in a small conservation area, but not for much longer. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is working to shrink this safe space—a move that threatens the survival of their species.

NMFS has tried to rollback conservation areas before, and has only backed down when facing fierce public opposition. Together, we can stop NMFS again, and help leatherback turtles stave off extinction.

Send a message to NMFS to tell them that conservation areas for endangered leatherback turtles should be expanded, not put in jeopardy.

Around the world, the leatherback population is plummeting due to careless fishing practices. Even though leatherbacks have thrived for millions of years, scientists predict it won’t last another 20 years if we don’t act. At this point, even one leatherback killed is too many.

And these nets are not just killers for leatherbacks. Whales, sea lions, dolphins, and other endangered species become entangled and die every year. For every one pound of swordfish caught by these gillnets, 27 pounds of other marine species die pointlessly.

We must keep waging battles with those who plunder our fisheries rather than manage them—whether it is off the California coast, in the frigid waters of the Bering Sea or in the fisheries of the Atlantic—to secure our oceans’ future.

Act now and tell NMFS that you want stronger protections for the leatherback turtle and other species near these dangerous fisheries.

Overfishing, climate change, and ocean acidification threaten to turn our oceans into deserts. Greenpeace is working for a future where overfishing has ceased, while endangered species like the leatherback turtle can flourish in protected marine reserves.

Every short-sighted and profit-driven decision we stop is another step towards true protection of the ocean ecosystems that nourish us.

Let’s bring down these “walls of death.”

For the oceans,

John Hocevar
Greenpeace USA Ocean Campaign Director